Match Preview: Southampton v Villa

Who are we playing?
Southampton on Saturday 16th May at 12:45pm

Where are we playing?
St Mary's Stadium Britannia Road Southampton Hants SO14 5FP


Can I go?
You can if you've already managed to get yer sticky mitts on a ticket. Away end sold out.

Easy to get to?
From the M3 take the A33 into Southampton. Continue on the A33 until you hit the A3024 Northam Road and turn left onto this towards Northam. Then turn right onto the B3038, Britannia Road for the stadium. Parking is a bitch though.

Train station is about a mile and half from the ground, a half hour stroll or no time at all if you nab a cab.

Can I watch it on telly?
BT Sports so try and buy some Michael Owen cancelling headphones...

Kozak on target at St. Mary's

Big game?
Meh.

We're all but safe from relegation and Southampton have faded in the second half of the season, their chances of Europe diminish by the week.

Win this (or beat Burnley) or we are 100% safe but only a miracle will save Hull City now anyway. It would be nice to finish above the Albion though and we need to win both our remaining games to do this.

The key thing now is to keep everyone fit and ready for Wembley, so we'll be begging that we get no more injuries and avoid any rash behaviour that could result in a sending off.

Typical Southampton fan

Do Southampton boast any famous fans?
Well, theres Craig David and Lucy Pinder but we're not even sure they qualify as famous anymore...

We've got David Bradley off of films and the telly.

So we win.



Who's playing for us?
Gabby's little cameo probably did him no favours, missing a sitter in front of the Holte End. We'd fully expect Tim to go with the same starting line-up again, as long as everyone is fit. Still unconvinced by Richardson at left back though. Nathan Baker is back in train ing but the luckless Kozak has a back problem.


Who's playing for them?
Ronald Koeman handed Paulo Gazzaniga a chance in goal last time out, one of many changes but they still got their arses handed to them by Leicester. Harrison Reed, Eljero Elia and Steven Davis were the three outfield players to come in but he may return to Shane Long in an attempt to get on the scoresheet. Southampton welcome James Ward-Prowse back from suspension but Morgan Schneiderlin (knee) is still out along with Dusan Tadic and Jay Rodriguez.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• Southampton have beaten us 22 times while we have 29 wins. There have been 23 draws.

JPA scores at St Mary's

• We won on our last visit to their place. Goals from Gabby, Libor Kozak and Fabian Delph gave us an unlikely 3-2 victory

• Our first ever meeting at St Mary's came in 2001. We triumphed 3-1 that day thanks to goals from George Boateng, Juan Pablo Angel and Mustapha Hadji.  Dion Dublin was sent off but this was later rescinded by the FA.

• Our first ever encounter was a League Division Two clash in 1936. We ran out 4-0 victors thanks to goals from Dai Astley, Ronnie Dix, Gordon Hodgson and Frank Broome

Prediction
2-1 to us